There's this from The Week:
New information about the Jan. 6 Capitol riot will be revealed in the near future, Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), vice chair of the House select committee investigating the attack, said on Sunday.
During an appearance on Meet the Press, Cheney said the committee's "first priority" is to make recommendations about legislation and criminal penalties for officials who do not carry out their duties.
"We're looking at things like do we need additional enhanced criminal penalties for the kind of supreme dereliction of duty that you saw with President Trump when he refused to tell the mob to go home after he had provoked that attack on the Capitol," Cheney said. "So there will be legislative recommendations, and there certainly will be new information."
Enhanced criminal penalties and a release of new information, huh?
From the MTP transcript, there's a little more:
Well, I think certainly, our first priority is to make recommendations. And we're looking at this like do we need additional enhanced criminal penalties for the kind of supreme dereliction of duty that you saw with President Trump when he refused to tell the mob to go home after he had provoked that attack on the Capitol. So there will be legislative recommendations, and there certainly will be new information. And I can tell you, I have not learned a single thing since I have been on this committee that has made me less concerned or less worried about the gravity of the situation and the actions that President Trump took and also refused to take while the attack was under way. '-[Emphasis added.]
At the beginning of her answer to Chuck Todd about her different votes regarding the (let me remind everyone) two Trump impeachment trials, she said this:
You know, I believe, Chuck, all of us who are in positions of public trust have an obligation to the Constitution.
They all took an oath and depending on their individual histories, perhaps a number of oaths to defend the Constitution.
This also happened this weekend:
State Sen. Doug Mastriano, a leading Republican candidate for governor, recounted his long-running, unproven case for election fraud on Saturday.
Yet his claims seemed subdued compared to those of leading national election denier Mike Lindell, the My Pillow founder and another featured speaker.
Lindell repeatedly and falsely claimed the number of votes counted in the 2020 election in Pennsylvania exceeded the number of registered voters. Each time, he drew nothing but applause from the crowd of several hundred which nearly filled a conference room near Gettysburg.
Let me correct the reporter here for a second. Look at the adjective he used
to modify the word "case" in his first sentence: unproven.
This is
incorrect. And let me illustrate with a simple example.
This is a description of Fermat's Last Theorem:
No three positive integers a, b, and c satisfy the equation an + bn = cn for any integer value of n greater than 2.
And prior to 1995, it was unproven.
After 1995? Proven.
See the problem here? By labeling it as "unproven" the reporter leaves open
the possibility (at least in that sentence) that Trump's big lie might
still be proven.
Even though David Wenner lays out the facts:
Mastriano has been a leading denier of the results of the 2020 election, including those of Pennsylvania, which President Joe Biden won by 80,555 votes, and where multiple state and county audits found no evidence of significant fraud.
Moreover, Republicans did well overall in Pennsylvania, winning the statewide races for treasurer and auditor general, further undercutting the plausibility of any fraud engineered by Democrats.
“There’s no evidence that there was widespread fraud. Period,” says political analyst G. Terry Madonna. “I don’t think anyone wouldn’t admit there could have been a bit here and a bit there … But nothing that would have changed the outcome of the election.”
The Associated Press said it contacted the elections offices in all 67 Pennsylvania counties. It said election officials in 11 counties identified a total of 26 possible cases of voter fraud. Most involved allegations of ballots being cast or people who were dead. Six people had been charged as of late 2021.
“Statewide, no prosecutor, judge or election official in Pennsylvania has raised a concern about widespread fraud,” the Associated Press wrote.
So...not unproven but disproven.
Anyway, Doug was there spouting out the disproven allegations of voter fraud to an adoring crowd of his supporters.
Wenner goes on:
Trump's big lie led to the attack on The Capitol.In the weeks following the election, Mastriano tweeted the false claim of “mounting evidence” against Pennsylvania’s election results, and advanced the idea state lawmakers could intervene and send pro-Trump delegates to the Electoral College.
Mastriano was in contact with Trump in the weeks leading up to the final result certification. He also organized buses to Washington, D.C. on Jan. 6, when Trump supporters stormed the Capitol trying to disrupt certification of Biden’s win.
And Doug was there, too.
BTW, Doug took this oath when he took his place in the Pennsylvania State Senate:
I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support, obey and defend the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of this Commonwealth and that I will discharge the duties of my office with fidelity.And this oath in the Army:
I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God.And yet, he's continued to lie about the 2020 election and was on the grounds at The Capitol when Trump's mob stormed it.
I wonder if any of the "new information" set to be released by The 1/6 Committee will involve Pennsylvania State Senator Doug Mastriano. I will be waiting.
